Program DescriptionThe keynote address, by artist/architect James Wines, will expand on the concept of “SEEDING.” His interpretation focuses on integrative ideas in architecture and public space that sow the seeds for people interaction. Wines’ presentation shows how environmentally responsive solutions for contemporary urban centers can grow out of information that already exists within a cityscape – including social, psychological, aesthetic, topographical and ecological elements. Illustrative examples demonstrate this absorption of context into contemporary design; by clarifying the ways it can accommodate the future and celebrate a city’s unique identity.

James Wines, winner of the 2013 National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement, is the founder and president of SITE, an art and design organization chartered in New York City in 1970. He is the former Chairman of Environmental Design at Parsons School of Design and currently a Professor of Architecture at Penn State University. He has given more that eight hundred lectures in fifty-seven countries and contributed essays to books and magazines in the USA, Europe and Asia. In 1987, his book DE-ARCHITECTURE was released by Rizzoli International and, in 2000, Taschen Verlag in Germany published GREEN ARCHITECTURE. During the past two decades, twenty-two monographic books and museum catalogues have explored Professor Wines' work for SITE. He has designed and built more than one hundred and fifty projects for private and municipal clients in eleven countries. Winner of twenty-five art and design honors, including the 1995 Chrysler Award for Design Innovation, he is also the recipient of fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Kress Foundation, American Academy in Rome, Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Graham Foundation and Ford Foundation. James Wines lives and works in New York City, with frequent travels abroad for design commissions, research and lectures. The main focus of his current work is on the fusion of art, architecture, landscape and the surrounding context.